Water Resistance Ratings for Watches

We frequently get questions here about the depth or water resistance ratings for watches. Sometimes the depth ratings assigned to watches can be deceptive.

For example, most manufacturers of a watch with a 30 meter depth rating recommend that you do not swim or shower with the watch. How's that??? 30 meters is 98 feet! How can they assign a 30 meter rating and then tell you not to swim with it?

Well, for starters, the depth rating actually refers to water pressure, and not an actual depth. Ok, that still sounds like semantics, but let me try to explain. When testing a watch, a manufacturer will expose the watch to the sort of pressure you would expect to see in a static environment at 30 meters, or 100 meters and so on. But if you were to put your wrist in shallow water and move it quickly through the water, the pressure applied to the watch might exceed the pressure you would find at much deeper depths.

So here are our guidelines:
30 meters = Splash proof, ok to dunk your hand in the sink
50 meters = Safe for light swimming or very shallow depths
100 meters = Safe for Swimming, water sports or snorkeling
200 + meters = Safe for diving

Of course you should never push any buttons on your watch or pull out the crown when it's exposed to water and the screw-down crown of a dive watch has to be screwed down when submerged.